Rebecca Penn Magruder
Album Quilt
1845-1851
Scroll
Rebecca Penn Magruder
Album Quilt
1845-1851
Physical Qualities
Cotton ground, wool, cotton and/or silk embroidery threads, ink, 119 1/8 x 116 in. (302.6 x 294.6 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Duncan Magruder Mills and Margaret Mills Maslak in Memory of their Mother, Vivian Magruder Moore Mills
Object Number
2012.584
The Baltimore Museum of Art was the first museum to engage in serious scholarship relating to Baltimore Album Quilts. Over three decades later, these impressive and complex quilts are still the subject of heated debate and vigorous scholarship. The true designers of many of the motifs are still unknown, while the makers are often undocumented, despite the signatures found within the blocks and family histories. This album displays many of the special blocks for which Baltimore Album Quilts are best known: the book (Lady’s album) within a wreath, the American eagle clasping the flag, the epergne (centerpiece) filled with fruits, and the rare musical trophy, to name a few. Techniques, including appliqué (reverse, layered, and chintz), embroidery, and selective cutting (choosing specific little parts of prints for specific decorative use) are employed. The quilt descended for generations in the family of Rebecca Penn Magruder, who may have had a role in its creation.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift; Duncan Magruder and Margaret Mills Maslak by inheritance from Vivian (or Virginia?) Magruder Moore Mills (mother) (died 1994), by inheritance from Alyce Virginia Magruder Moore (1882-1961) (grandmother), by inheritance from maker Rebecca Penn Magruder
New Arrivals: Gifts of Art for a New Century
Becky Brown, "A Shared Treasure," American Quilter, Summer, 1988, pp. 12-13, ill.
Sotheby's [New York], Important Americana: Furniture and Folk Art, January 18, 1998, lot 1477, illus. on cover and inside.
"Gifts of Art," BMA Today, Summer 2013, p. 12, ill.
Jennifer F. Goldsborough. "Baltimore Album Quilts." The Magazine Antiques (March 1994), pp. 412-421.
Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough. Lavish Legacies: Album and Related Quilts in the Collection of the Maryland Historical Society. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1994.
Dena Katzenberg, "Baltimore Album Quilts," Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1980.
William Rush Dunton, Jr. Old Quilts. Catonsville, Maryland: By the Author, 1946.
Marilynn Johnson Bordes, Twelve Great Quilts from the America Wing, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, cat. #6, n.p., illus.
Eleanor H. Gustafson (ed.), 'Collector's Notes: Mary Evans super quilter?,' The Magazine Antiques (Jan. 1990), p. 156, p. 178, p. 206.
'Important Quilt Squares Acquired,' Maryland Historical Society News & Notes, Vol. 19, No. 3(May/June 1990), p. 1.
Carter, Hazel. Virginia quilts: first search for Virginia-made quilts, beginning in Northern Virginia / text by Hazel Carter ; photographs by Henry French ; sponsored by the Continental Quilting Congress. Vienna, Virginia : The Congress, 1987. 40 pages, some color. [Published before this quilt was registered:?]
Virginia Consortium of Quilters. Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899: The Birth of America Through the Eye of a Needle. Schiffer Books, 2006.
Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough. Lavish Legacies: Album and Related Quilts in the Collection of the Maryland Historical Society. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1994.
Dena Katzenberg, "Baltimore Album Quilts," Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1980.
William Rush Dunton, Jr. Old Quilts. Catonsville, Maryland: By the Author, 1946.
Marilynn Johnson Bordes, Twelve Great Quilts from the America Wing, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974, cat. #6, n.p., illus.
Eleanor H. Gustafson (ed.), 'Collector's Notes: Mary Evans super quilter?,' The Magazine Antiques (Jan. 1990), p. 156, p. 178, p. 206.
'Important Quilt Squares Acquired,' Maryland Historical Society News & Notes, Vol. 19, No. 3(May/June 1990), p. 1.
Carter, Hazel. Virginia quilts: first search for Virginia-made quilts, beginning in Northern Virginia / text by Hazel Carter ; photographs by Henry French ; sponsored by the Continental Quilting Congress. Vienna, Virginia : The Congress, 1987. 40 pages, some color. [Published before this quilt was registered:?]
Virginia Consortium of Quilters. Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899: The Birth of America Through the Eye of a Needle. Schiffer Books, 2006.
Inscribed: Marked in cross stitch on block 1E: "M.M. Brunner" Marked in embroidery stitches on block. 5C: "Lady's Album" Inked in writing on banderole in temperance block 2C: "Fountain of Life" Written in ink on fabric label sewn onto back corner, reverse: "Virginia Quilt Project/4-29-89, Reg. #2-89"
